1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a biochemical analyzer and an analyzing method, and particularly it relates to an apparatus for and method of chemical analysis and measurement of a liquid sample by using a measuring element impregnated with a reaction reagent.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Regarding a liquid sample such as blood and serum, in generally, it is often necessary to know the existence of a specific component or the content thereof or the like in said liquid sample, and chemical analysis by using a reaction reagent is conducted for this purpose. There are a dry method and a wet method. According to the dry method, a liquid sample to be analyzed is dripped onto a measuring element which is prepared by putting a thin leaf impregnated with a specified reagent between mounts. The measuring element thus supplied with the liquid sample is set in a thermostatic bath for reaction so as to make the liquid sample and the reagent react on each other, and the state of progress of the reaction or the result thereof is measured and detected, for instance, by a means in which a change in color density due to the reaction is measured by an optical densitometer. This method is very convenient, since it enables the handling of the liquid sample as a solid in practice.
It is troublesome, however, to drip a number of specimens one by one onto the measuring element so as to measure a change in color density due to reactions by the optical densitometer. In this connection, a biochemical analyzer has been developed recently in which a disk enabling the engagement of a plurality of measuring elements at equally-spaced positions on the same circle is provided so that it can be rotated by a prescribed angle so as to move the measuring elements sequentially to a measuring position for photometry. However, the measuring elements require different reaction reagents according to examination items, while necessitating the selection of photometric timing and wavelength of photometric rays of light. Therefore, this apparatus involves very troublesome steps when many kinds of measuring elements being present together on the same disk are treated.